Create A Bootable Windows 7 USB Drive From Linux (Tested On Ubuntu)

Author : Andrew | Posted: October 07, 2010

How to create a bootable Windows 7 USB Drive while using Ubuntu

Firstly, make sure you have a Windows 7 .ISO file (you can create it from the DVD) and a 4GB USB flash drive (or larger).

1. Install Gparted and format the USB drive to NTFS. In Ubuntu, use the following command to install Gparted:

To be able to format a drive to NTFS, you’ll also need ntfs-3g — install it using the following command:

I’m not sure if UNetbootin will mark the drive as bootable as my USB drive already had the «boot» flag enabled from Gparted, so you may want to enable it too: right click the USB drive and select «Manage flags», then check the «boot» flag.

Then you’ll have to mount the USB drive back. You can do it from the command line or Disk Utility (System > Administration > Disk Utility) but to keep things simple, you can just unplug the USB flash drive and plug it back in to the computer.

2. Some users have reported that some recent Unetbootin versions no longer let you select an USB drive formatted to NTFS and by formatting it to FAT, the Windows 7 installation fails. So here’s what to do: download Unetbootin version 494 from HERE (version tested and it should work).

Then, right click the downloaded Unetbootin file, select Properties and on the «Permissions» tab, check the «Allow executing file as program» box. Then simply double click it and it should open.

Using this (494) Unetbootin version, you have an option to «Show all Drives» which lets you select the NTFS formatted drive and write the Windows 7 ISO onto it. With newer version, this option is no longer available.

3. Open UNetbootin, select «Diskimage» and then browse for your Windows 7 ISO file.

Now simply click the «OK» button and wait for the files to be copied to the USB drive.

After Unetbootin is done, you can use the USB stick to install Windows 7 on any computer that supports booting from an USB drive.

Update: you may want to check out WinUSB (fork) instead, a tool that can create bootable Windows 10 as well as 8 and 7 sticks from Linux. See here: Make A Bootable Windows 10 USB Install Stick On Linux With WinUSB Fork

How to Create a Bootable Windows 10 USB in Linux

Last updated October 29, 2020 By Abhishek Prakash 419 Comments

Brief: This tutorial shows you how to create a bootable Windows 10 USB in Linux with and without a GUI tool called WoeUSB.

I have talked a lot about creating bootable USB of Linux in Windows. How about the other way round? How about creating a bootable Windows 10 USB in Linux?

If you are uninstalling Linux from dual boot or if you want to reinstall Windows completely or you simply want to have a Windows installation disk ready, you’ll need a bootable Windows 10 USB or DVD.

In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to create a Windows 10 bootable USB in Linux. I am using Ubuntu for this tutorial but the steps should be valid for other Linux distributions as well.

If you want to use WoeUSB graphical tool for creating Windows bootable USB, you can jump to that section directly. Personally, I don’t recommend WoeUSB.

Creating a Bootable Windows 10 USB in Linux

Prerequisite: Get Microsoft Windows 10 ISO and a USB of at least 8 GB in size

You can download Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft’s website. You have to specify the Windows 10 version, language and then you should see the link to download Windows 10.

Note that the Windows 10 ISO download link is valid for 24 hours only. So use a download manager in Linux to download the

5.6 GB file and finish it within 24 hours only.

Since the ISO and its content are more than 4 GB in size, I recommend a USB of at least 8 GB in size.

I have also made a video of this tutorial so that you can see the steps in action.

Step 2: Properly format the USB for creating bootable Windows USB

Insert your USB. You have to format it so make sure that you don’t have important data on the USB key.

In Ubuntu, press Super key (Windows key) and search for ‘Disks’. You have to use this tool to format the USB key.

In the Disks tool, make sure to select your USB drive and hit format.

It will ask to choose a partitioning scheme. It could be either MBR or GPT. Select one of them and hit Format.

It will show you a warning that you data will be erased.

Format the USB

The formatting of USB is not over yet. Now, you need to create a partition on the newly formatted USB.

Select the entire USB disk as the partition size.

Give a name to your USB and hit Create button.

Once done, your USB should be automatically mounted. It is now ready for creating bootable Windows 10 USB disk.

Files larger than 4 GB?

Newer Windows 10 ISO might have files larger than 4GB. In that case, FAT filesystem won’t work as it doesn’t allow a single file of size greater than 4 GB.

You should then format the USB in ExFAT format. This newer format allows files bigger than 4 GB.

Step 3: Copy the content of the ISO to USB

Now it’s time to copy the content of the Windows 10 ISO to the newly formatted USB.

You may ask, Abhishek, there is only one file and that is the ISO file itself. What are you talking about?

ISO is basically an archive format and you can see it’s content like any zip file in Linux. But to do that, you need to use ‘Disk Image Mounter’ tool that is installed by default in Ubuntu.

Go to your Windows 10 ISO, select it and right click on it. Now select ‘Open with other application’.

In the applications list, select Disk Image Mounter:

The ISO will be mounted. You may not see it in the left sidebar but if you click on the Other Locations, you should see it. Click on it to enter this mounted ISO folder.

You’ll see its content. All you need to do is to select all the files (Ctrl+A), copy it (Ctrl+C) and paste it in the USB drive (Ctrl+V).

Wait for the copying process to finish as it may take some time in copying 4-5 GB of data. Once it’s done, you have a bootable Windows 10 USB in your hand. Take out the USB and use it to any system you want, restart the system and change the boot settings to boot from the USB.

Alternate Method: Creating Windows 10 bootable USB in Linux using WoeUSB

You can also use a Graphical tool called WoeUSB for creating a bootable Windows USB in Linux. However, this tool might not work perfectly all the time. This is why I prefer the first method of mounting the Windows 10 ISO and copying its content to the USB.

If you are interesting in using WoeUSB, you can click on the next section to expand it and follow the steps.

You can also watch a video of creating Windows 10 bootable USB. Do subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Linux videos:

Let’s see how to create a bootable Windows 10 USB in Ubuntu and other Linux distribution.

Step 1: Install WoeUSB application

WoeUSB is a free and open source application for creating Windows 10 bootable USB. It is actually a fork of WinUSB tool that has been discontinued now.

Ubuntu and other Ubuntu-based Linux distributions such as Linux Mint, elementary OS etc have a PPA available. You can use the command below to install WoeUSB:

For other Linux distributions, you can check out the source code from the GitHub repository:

Step 2: Format USB drive

Now, plug in your USB key. You’ll have to format it first. I presume you know how to format a USB key in your Linux distribution.

Ubuntu users can simply right click on the USB and click format.

The important part here is that you should format it in NTFS:

Note: If you use Fat 32 file system for formatting, you may encounter the error below later on:

Step 3: Using WoeUSB to create bootable Windows 10

We have everything ready for us now. Start WoeUSB program.

Browse to the downloaded Windows 10 ISO file and select the USB drive on which you want to install it. Just click on Install to begin the process.

Note that it may take up to 15 minutes in creating the Windows 10 USB. Don’t get fooled by the ‘done’ on the screen.

That’s it. You should see a success message.

Step 4: Using Windows 10 bootable USB

Once the bootable USB is ready, restart your system. At boot time, press F2 or F10 or F12 repeatedly to go to the boot settings. In here, select to boot from USB.

You’ll see that Windows 10 is being booted and it gives you the option to install or repair your system. You know what to do now from here.

I hope you find this tutorial useful for creating bootable USB of Windows 10 in Linux . If you have questions or suggestions, please feel free leave a comment.

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Booting from USB Media: A Comprehensive Overview

While fans of different operating systems might debate which one is the most stable, reliable, flexible or user-friendly, there’s one inarguable point: Every machine – regardless of the OS – can run into issues.

And while users historically would pop a boot media disk into their DVD or CD drive, many computers no longer come with optical disk drives. As a result, booting from USB media is becoming the standard.

How you start that rescue media can vary depending on the operating system you are using, but there are a few general guidelines that can help get your machine started, regardless of the OS you prefer.

So if your system is unstable, you need to run a diagnostic tool on the hard drive, or you just want to load a Linux desktop just to see what it’s all about, let’s look at how you start your machine using rescue USB boot media.

How to boot a Mac from USB media

Getting your Mac to load from a USB drive is fairly straightforward.

1. Insert the USB boot media into an open USB slot.
2. Press the Power button to turn on your Mac (or Restart your Mac if it’s already on).
3. When you hear the startup chime, press and hold the Option key. Holding that key gives you access to OS X’s Startup Manager. Once the Startup Manager screen appears, release the Option key. The utility will look for any available drives that include bootable content.
4. Using either the pointer or arrow keys on the keyboard, select the USB drive you wish to boot from.
5. Once selected, either hit the Return key or double-click your selection. The machine will start to boot from the USB drive.

NOTE: Have multiple USB devices connected to your Mac? Don’t worry. The Startup Manager only lists drives that include bootable content.

Boot from USB: Windows

Starting your PC using USB rescue media is not difficult, although it first requires an adjustment in the BIOS (Basic Input Output System). That’s because the BIOS settings include the boot sequence the machine follows when starting up. The boot order tells the machine which devices to search for the software needed to launch the computer and the priority each device in that search.

If you’re booting from USB media, you must change the BIOS boot order so the USB device is listed first. Otherwise the computer will load from the hard drive as normal.

Start by plugging the thumb drive into a USB port. Then to change the BIOS boot sequence:

1. Press the Power button for your computer.
2. During the initial startup screen, press ESC, F1, F2, F8 or F10. (Depending on the company that created your version of BIOS, a menu may appear.)
3. When you choose to enter BIOS Setup, the setup utility page will appear.
4. Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, select the BOOT tab. All of the available system devices will be displayed in order of their boot priority. You can reorder the devices here.
5. Move USB to be first in the boot sequence.

NOTE: If you cannot find USB or Removable Devices among the device options, your BIOS may list it under Hard Drive Devices. In that case, you’ll need to:

• Move Hard Drive Devices to the top
• Expand to show all hard drive device options
• Move USB device to the top of that hard drive list

Save the change and then exit the BIOS Setup.

The computer will restart using the new settings, booting from your USB drive.

Stay alert! Depending on your BIOS, you may be prompted with a message to Press any key to boot from external device and you will only have a few seconds to respond. If you do nothing, your computer will go to the next device in the boot sequence list, which will likely be your hard drive.

In the future, your computer will first check the USB port for boot media when starting up. That won’t be a problem, since the BIOS will move to the next device in the boot sequence . unless you keep the boot media in the USB port. Then the system will launch from that device every time.

Linux USB Boot Process

To boot Ubuntu from USB media, the process is very similar to the Windows instructions above.

1. Confirm the BIOS boot sequence lists the USB drive first, or make that change as needed.
2. After the USB flash drive is inserted into the USB port, press the Power button for your machine (or Restart if the computer is running).
3. The installer boot menu will load, where you will select Run Ubuntu from this USB.
4. Ubuntu will launch and you can begin to working in the system – setting preferences, reconfiguring the system as needed, or running any diagnostic tools.

Creating USB boot media

Regardless of the operating system you are using, booting your machine from USB media does not need to be difficult. A general understanding how your system loads can provide the basics needed to understand what is going on when you use boot media.

Creating USB boot media doesn’t need to be difficult either, although there are several options to consider.

For Mac users, we recommend visiting Apple’s support page on USB boot media. It provides guidance that is specific to the iteration of OS X you are running (i.e. Sierra, High Sierra, Yosemite, etc.) to help you get the boot version you need.

Windows and Linux users might consider Acronis Disk Director 12, which includes an intuitive Boot Media Builder that streamlines the process and offers tremendous flexibility for the type and kind of boot media you can create, including WinPE media.